p 



7*9 



P 685 
.M375 
Copy 1 



EARLY DAYS IN KANSAS. 



An address by Georgf. W. Martin, Secretary of the State Historical Society, October 3, 1904, 
at I he* semicentennial of the founding- of Lawrence. 



THE story of Kansas has been told and told, but the half has not been 
known. The troubles of Charles Robinson, John Brown, and James H. 
Lane, the doings and misdoings of the leaders and agitators, have monopo- 
lized the attention of history, to the overshadowing of the meek and humble, 
the noiseless doings of the great army of pioneers, without whom no one 
could have made fame, and but for whom the sentiment of our "Ad astra 
per aspera" would never have been immortalized. 

I look back, and it is easy to see the swarms of heroic men and women 
coming up the river; and, when denied the river, blazing a way across the 
prairies of Iowa and Nebraska, on foot and by wagon, to make homes and 
save Kansas to freedom. And amid the bluster and ruffianism of the bor- 
der, I see pro-slavery or Southern people moving in to find homes, content 
that the issue should be honestly made and fairly settled. And, glancing 
down the history of the years, I see how these people blended into a homo- 
geneous citizenship, disturbed only by the wrangles of those who sought 
leadership. 

And a review of the fifty years shows me how the toilers, the humble in- 
dividuals who came to these plains to work, have made a billion-dollar com- 
monwealth of the territory of Kansas. In view of our aptness in dodging 
taxation, I take it that an assessed valuation in 1904 of $387,577,259 war- 
rants as fair a comparison between the bleak and uninviting prairies of fifty 
years ago, absolutely worthless, and a billion dollars of Uncle Sam's two- 
or four-per-cent. bonds of to-day. Who produced this wonderful result? 
Those who filled the offices, many of whom are known only by their receipts 
for salary; those who attained temporary or spasmodic fame; or those who 
figure in our published histories as statesmen and leaders? Of course, none 
of them. Real history will tell you that those who stuck first the plowshare 
into this soil are the heroes who have accomplished so much. 

I am not a boss buster. I would not disparage the boss. Sometimes a 
change is essential, but a boss is indispensable. Kansas was born of bosses, 
by bosses, and for bosses. Concerning Kansas, and what should happen 
here, fifty years ago everybody from Maine to Texas was a boss. The 
political bosses at that time in the higher circles of national affairs undoubt- 
edly decreed that Nebraska should be free and Kansas should be slave ter- 
ritory. New England, however, became the real concrete thing, at long 
range, with several score of subbosses on the ground. And while the Middle 
West furnished the voters and a fair sprinkling of the subbosses, New Eng- 
land is entitled to the honor of leadership in organizing the forces following 
the plow and the shop, in starting the most interesting of all in the union of 

•Reprinted from Volume VIII, Historical Society Collections. 



1 >*DO 



states. From what I see of the publications of the New England states, of 
New York, Pennsylvania, and some of the Southern states, going back to 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Kansas will some day publish the 
name of every person who settled in her borders during the territorial era; 
this on the theory that the humble worker, and not he who attains promi- 
nence through some noise, is the one that history will in the end credit with 
what success has been made. 

Neither would I disparage the man who fights. Those were stirring 
times. Those who came here to settle a principle and make a home— and 
that meant the vast majority— were compelled occasionally to take the 
sword. They did not come here to steal horses and to raise hell, as some 
historians would have you believe. They and their descendants have re- 
mained with us. But the violence and the outrages through which the 
territorial settlers passed have been dwelt on, to the neglect of business 
operations and the development of material interests. 

So what has been the result of the fifty years under the combined effort 
of the men who started the plow, those who fought, those who led in 
public affairs, and the bossism of New England ? Who can conceive the 
idea of a few settling on a raw and useless piece of the world and starting 
such machinery of government as we have in the state-house at Topeka ? 
Where such a thing or power was never dreamed of fifty-one or two years 
ago, we have a perpetual motion which draws from the soil millions of 
dollars every year where not a dollar existed before. Laws to regulate the 
affairs of the people, and a body to adjudicate differences, are made and 
accepted by all. This power has drawn and expended $11,445,703 1 in erect- 
ing buildings for public use, for higher education, and the unfortunate. It 
has created a current business requiring the annual gathering and disburse- 
ment for state, county, school and municipal purposes amounting to $16,063,- 
637.25 for the year 1904. This governmental machine has also created an 
indebtedness upon this territory amounting in 1904 to $34,027,649, securities 
ranking as high as any in the world. 

School property has increased from $10,432 in 1862 to $9,298,387 in 1904. 
There are 8627 common schools at work in the state, employing 10,103 teach- 
ers, costing annually from $10,381 in 1862 to $6,523,967.21 in 1904. From 
1878 to 1904, inclusive, this machine called the state, founded by our terri- 
torial pioneers, gathered in and expended for common schools $110,472,981,13. 
It had a permanent school fund, December 31, 1904, amounting to $7,599,- 
395.48. On this date the State University, the State Normal School and the 
State Agricultural College each had permanent funds— bond account — of 
$150,079.17, $218,435, and $487,388.80, respectively. Including the denomina- 
tional schools, we have a total invested in school property of $18,603,324.' 

For the year 1904 our crop products amounted to $208,406,358, and our 
live stock on hand was $159,010,755, making a total value of $367,417,113. 
Among the fifteen leading agricultural states, for a period of five years, 
Kansas stands No. 1, with a combined value of wheat and corn raised for 
that period of $387,433,347. In the year 1900 Kansas ranked No. 1 for corn, 
with a value of $97,807,3 62. The total acreage of the state is 52,572,160, and 
in 1904 but 25,672,082 acres were in use. From 1904 back to and includ- 
ing 1883, twenty-one years, the crop productions of Kansas amounted to 
$3,368,584,768, or an annual average of $160,408,798. Much less than fifty 

Note 1.— Superintendent pulilic instruction (Kan.) reports, 1862-1904; state treasurer, 1904. 



0. of A- 

)AN : 1918 



years ago the western end of the state was considered absolutely worthless ; 
and yet the results for 1904 gave a per capita production of over $300 in 
several of the counties of that section; and pioneers of 1854 and 1855 have 
lived to see ordinary farms sell for $35 and $40 per acre; and alfalfa farms, 
something then unknown, also sell for from $50 to $75 per acre, in the 
western one-half of the state. Add the value for each year back to and in- 
cluding 1872, less 1873, for which year there are no figures, and we have a 
total of $3,932,153,889. Since 1872, less 1873, and including 1904, we have 
raised, from a very small portion of the "American Desert," 4,070,778,487 
bushels of corn and 1,051,806,169 bushels of wheat. 2 We have 13,099,637 
bearing fruit-trees and 4,946,630 non-bearing fruit-trees. 3 

In 1903 the mineral productions of Kansas amounted to $27,154,007.85, or 
a grand total of production since the industry began of $249,325,890.06. The 
production of oil in 1903 amounted to $1,120,018.90, or a total of $2,025,584.33 
since 1894. In 1903 the value of natural gas produced was $1,115,375, or a 
total of $4,475,616 since 1889. 4 Before the greater portion of this oil and gas 
development, the United States census for 1900 gave the state 7830 manu- 
facturing establishments, with a total capital of $66,827,362, and an annual 
production of $172,129,398. 

At the close of fifty years the state had a population of 1,533, 049. 5 In 
June, 1904, or nine days more than fifty years from the signing of the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill, Kansas had 534 state and private banks and 156 national 
banks, in which our people had deposits amounting to $104,841,566.82.° We 
are the fifth state in the Union in railroad mileage, with 10,527.92 miles, 
June 30, 1904, of which 10,067 miles are of steel rails. 7 We have $8,000,000 
worth of church property. 5 

Stop a moment and grasp these figures, if you can, the result of the 
movement started on these prairies by the territorial pioneers. Consider, 
also, that, of this semicentennial period, on the eastern border the first ten 
years were given to war and bloodshed, while on the western border the first 
twenty or twenty-five years passed before development obtained a foothold 
or impetus, the Indians 8 raiding that section as late as twenty-four years 
after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. And the figures represent 
the productive power of less than one-half of the magnificent domain within 
the bounds of Kansas. In those days agriculture was considered doubtful, 
while the mineral development was not dreamed of. The people in that por- 
tion of Nebraska south of the Platte made a vigorous effort to be included 
in the state of Kansas, but the Wyandotte constitutional convention ex- 
cluded them. 

God forbid that I should present these figures as the only results of the 
seed sown by the pioneers of the '50's, or that a mercenary touch should 
overshadow the spirit of loyalty, of state pride, of enthusiasm for home, be- 

Note 2.— Reports State Board of Agriculture. 1872-1904. 

Note 3. -State Horticultural Society, 1904. 

Note 4. — University Geological Survey of Kansas, Mineral Resources. 1900-'03. 

Note 5,— United States census, 1900. 

Note 6. — Report of Kansas Bank Commissioner, 1903-'04. 

Note 7. — Report of Kansas Board of Railroad Commissioners, 1904. 

Note 8.— The Northern Cheyennes, under the leadership of Dull Knife, made a raid across 
the state in September and October, 1878, during Gov. George T. Anthony's administration, in 
which more than forty men were murdered and many women captured. 



queathed by them to native and adopted sons alike. They set a standard of 
citizenship that sent more soldiers into the Union armies during the rebel- 
lion than the state had voters, and that always exceeded quotas without 
bounty, heading the column of mortality with the highest percentage— 61.01 
in 1000, Vermont and Massachusetts following with 58.22 and 47.76, respect- 
ively. In the late war with Spain, the state furnished a regiment which 
commanded the attention of the world, with others that would have done as 
well had opportunity been the same to all. The finest building in every 
Kansas town is a schoolhouse. A distinguished senator, who commanded 
the plaudits of the world for eighteen years, said that once a Kansan, the 
allegiance can never be forsworn; so that the title "formerly of Kansas" 
commands everywhere the profoundest attention, securing to all our boys 
who emigrate choice places in all lines of the world's activities. 

Who were the people at that time engaged in the movement to establish 
the state of Kansas ? I hope it will not be treason on this sacred town site, 
watered by the blood of so many martyrs, and battered on all sides by foes un- 
til the heroic character of Lawrence is established the world over, to say that 
they were overwhelmingly Middle states and Western people. We have no 
count for 1854. Reeder's census,'' in February, 1855, shows a population of 8601, 
of whom 408 were foreigners, 151 free negroes, and 192 slaves. There were 

Note 9.— The census of Kansas as taken during the territorial period : 

1854, May 30. " I infer it is the white population of Kansas that you desire. This informa- 
tion I will give you as nearly as I can. There were three military posts at this period, Leaven- 
worth. Riley, and Fort Scott. [The latter fort was dismantled, 1853-'55.] Fort Riley was built 
during the years 1852-'53. I have not now any means of ascertaining the number of employees at 
those forts. I visited and was employed at two government stations during that period, and I 
have made an estimate of all the school and missionary stations at that time, including mission- 
aries, teachers, traders, mechanics, squaw-men, etc., and give it, as nearly as can now be ascer- 
tained, as about 1200 men, women, and children. About one-half of this number were single 
men. ' There were no settlers upon the public lands prior to 1854. The territory at that time was 
covered all over with Indian reservations, and no white settlers were permitted to settle upon the 
lands. A few squaw-men and half-breeds who were lawfully in the Indian country had taken a 
few claims, perhaps fifty or more such. Those names Mr. Cone gives are of these classes. I 
recognize among them Pottawatomie and Kaw names." — T. S. Huffaker, Council Grove, October 
30. 1905. 

1855, January 15. As provided by the organic act of May 30, 1854, census enumerators were 
appointed by Governor Reeder. ( Kan. State Hist. Soc. Col., vol. 3, p. 247.) Returns. (Rept. of 
Cong. Inves. Com., 1856, pp. 9, 30.) 

1857, February 19. An act to provide for the taking a census, and election for delegates to a 
convention. I Laws 1857, p. 60.) Returns. (Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, May 30. 1857. i "Cen- 
sus of Douglas County," a broadside containing the names of 552 electors, arranged by town- 
ships, dated May 9, 1857. 

1857. Census taken under provisions of the Topeka legislature in the summer of 1857, as 
mentioned in letter of T. J. Marsh to George L. Stearns. Lawrence, K. T., July 18, 1857 : "The work 
of census taking has not been completed. Some 50,000 inhabitants have been returned. The 
number of voters is much larger in proportion to the whole number of inhabitants than with 
us. As an instance, I saw one return of the numbering of a township thus : Voters, 1584 ; total, 
3008. The census will be continued. It is said there is a large portion not yet taken." 

1858. January 21. An act to provide for taking a census in certain districts. (Laws of 1858, 
p. 223.) "Sec. 2. The following persons are hereby appointed commissioners to take such census, 
viz.: Scott J. Anthony and Columbus Crane, for the township of Kickapoo ; Benj. F. Dare and 
Chas. Mayo, for the township of Oxford ; Chas. Mayo and Samuel M. Cornatzer, for the township 
of Shawnee; Dr. J. Eagles and Caleb Woodworth, jr., for the township of Walnut : J. C. Danford 
and Wm. Emerson, for the townships of Tate and Potosi ; A. G. Barrett and Dan C. Auld, for the 
county of Marshall ; and Wm. R. Griffith, for the county of McGee. who, before entering upon 
the discharge of their duties, shall take an oath faithfully to discharge their duties under the 
provisions of this act."— Laws 1858, p. 224. [Have not yet found returns of this census.] 

1859. February 11. An act providing for taking a census. (General Laws 1859, p. 78.) Re- 
turns, i House Journal, special session, 1860, pp. 35-39. > " The returns, as reported by the gov- 
ernor, show a partial and incorrect census, as taken in the month of June, 1859, since which time 
the immigration into Kansas has been unprecedented. The whole amount of population, as re- 
ported by the governor at the regular session ( January 3, 1859 ), was 71,770 ; to which, if we add 
the calculation, as estimated in the foregoing counties partially returned, and from which we 
have no return, the population, up to the 1st day of July. 1859, would amount to about to 107,570, 
in which is not included a large number of the most populous counties, from which there have 
been only a part of the townships returned to the executive."— Report of Committee on Elections, 
in House Journal, special session, 1860, p. 425. 

1860. United States census, vol. ], pp. 15£-167. 



2905 voters. I find the statement that in Lawrence, in January, 1855, there 
were 80 residences, 10 with from 5 to 20 occupants each. Another account gives 
you credit for 400 abolitionists. Notwithstanding the census count of 2905 
voters in the whole territory in February, in the following month of March. 
5427 pro-slavery, 791 free-state and 89 scattering votes were cast. In April, 
1857, Secretary Stanton made another count, and found a population of 25,- 
321, with five counties making no returns. The census of June, 1859, gives 
Lawrence township a total population of 3351; number of voters, 1079; 
heads of families not voters, 26; number of minors, 2239; negroes, 7. u 
There seems to have been no other count, except of voters, until the fed- 
eral census of 1860. The vote 1 - on the Wyandotte constitution, and for 
delegate to Congress, October 4, 1859, seems to have been an orderly one, 
amounting to 15,951 for and against the constitution, and 16,949 total vote for 
delegate. In 1860 the census showed a population in the territory of 107,206, 
of whom 12,691 were born in foreign countries. This gave a population of 
94,513 native-born Americans. In the census of 1860, the state of Ohio led, 
with 11,617 natives in Kansas; Missouri followed, with 11,356; Kansas comes, 
in third, with 10,997 babies; Indiana is fourth, with 9945, and Illinois fifth, 
with 9367; Kentucky was next, with 6556; Pennsylvania, 6463; New York, 
6331; and Iowa with 4008. The six New England states led Iowa, with 
4208. The tenth state was the two Virginias, with 3487. The list continues : 
No. 11, Tennessee, with 2569; No. 12, Wisconsin, with 1351; No. 13, Massa- 
chusetts, 1282; No. 14, North Carolina, 1234; No. 15, Michigan, 1137; No. 
16, Vermont, 902; No. 17, Maine, 728; No. 18, Connecticut, 650; No. 19, 
Maryland, 620; No. 20, New Jersey, 499. Daniel W. Wilder, who worked 
out these figures, himself a Massachusetts man, says: "But nearly all the 
states that contributed largely to Kansas in the early and later years were 
connected with us by river navigation. These states were Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri, 
and Iowa. These states and their rivers made Kansas." 

From an address by John A. Anderson before the teachers' institutes in 
1879, I quote: "From this standpoint (meaning that the Western man is 
better fitted for pioneer work), please scan the proportions in which our 
population came from other states to Kansas, as enumerated in the census 
of 1875: Out of each 100 Kansans, there came from New England 1, from 
New York 2, Pennsylvania 3, Ohio 6, Kentucky 2, Indiana 7, Illinois 17, and 
Missouri 14. These states may be termed the agricultural spine of the na- 
tion, both because of climatic position and the order of their settlement. 
From Michigan came 2, Wisconsin 2, Minnesota 1, Iowa 9, and Nebraska 1. 
These are the ribs, and of later growth. Other groupings show that the 
Atlantic slope, embracing New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and 
Alabama, all told, furnished 7, and the great basin ( meaning the region be- 
tween the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains), 83. The slave states fur- 
nished 19 and the free states 76. Foreign countries sent 5 and the United 
States 95." 

The federal census of 1900 gave us 630,321 native-born Kansans. Illinois 

Note 10. — The Webb Scrap-books are responsible for much of this miscellaneous information. 
Note 11. — House Journal, special session, 1860, p. 37. 
Note 12.— Wilder's Annals, pp. 281. 282. 



followed, with 113,704, and Missouri next, with 100,814. The six New Eng- 
land states in 1900 had 11,857 natives in Kansas, and of this number 3433 
came from Massachusetts. 

So the illusion that has always existed that Kansas is a Yankee state is 
dispelled. 

This disclaimer, however, does not evidence any lack of pride by us in 
the connection the Yankees had with the beginnings of Kansas. It will 
probably never be a question whether Kansas would have been saved from 
slavery without the agitation and money of New England. Upon the pas- 
sage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill the free states and the slave states began 
to organize to open battle in Kansas. The compromise measure of 1820 
made Kansas free soil, and the undoubted purpose of the act of May 30, 
1854, was to facilitate the introduction of slavery into this territory. The 
South claimed Kansas as its own, but that region was no match in resources 
to the North, led by New England. The South could not raise funds as did 
the North, and organization in its interest was almost entirely limited to the 
border counties of Missouri. However, in John Sherman's scrap-book is a 
letter dated New Orleans, June 4, 1856, addressed "To the North," and 
signed "J. H. J.," in which it is said: "The South has sent more than 
$200,000 already— not to Kansas, but in the border counties of Missouri— and 
will send double that amount in the next three months," the pretext being 
to buy Kansas lands. A speaker in the Alabama legislature said Kansas 
was worth to the South a tax of ten per cent, on the $250,000,000 of slave 
property. Buford l3 sold forty slaves at an average of $700 each, or $28,000, 
all of which he lost in his Kansas movement. I see frequent statements in 
the Southern papers that he obtained all the money he desired, but the sub- 
scription lists to be found seem to be short. The various organizations and 
movements in the North and South to raise money for Kansas will always 
be of interest, and some day of persistent investigation. Daniel W. Wilder 
says that, through all instrumentalities, not less than $250,000 was raised 
in the North for Kansas, and that it was money well spent. 

And yet there is abundance of testimony in the old scrap-books out of 
which I am working to show that the Yankees about Lawrence did it all. 
A Washington writer in the Philadelphia Ledger, as early as December, 1854, 
threw up the sponge, as follows: "In July last (1854) I wrote you that 
Kansas would be a slave state. I am now of a different opinion. The im- 
pertinent and insolent interference of your Eastern fanatics, the colonizing, 
as they have done by hundreds, of the lowest class of rowdies to browbeat 
our voters, and prevent a fair expression of the popular will, has brought 
about this result. They have located themselves near the Kansas river, 
named their city Lawrence, and number, I am told, some hundreds of vot- 
ers. I have seen some of them, and they are the most unmitigated set of 
blackguards I have ever laid my eyes upon." 

I have said that the story of Kansas has been told and told, and only half 
known. The position I occupy is a remarkable one from which to view and 
contemplate the dimensions of Kansas and the activity of her people. The 
founders of the State Historical Society gave it a breadth of foundation and 
purpose, resulting in a collection the scope of which is little realized by the 
public. The factional and controversial feature of our history has obscured 
much of this material. It will be of use in determining mattera after all 

Note 13.— Fleming's "The Buford Expedition," in Am. Hist. Review, vol. 6. October, 1900. 



the participants have gone to glory. I am a hopeful sort of an individual— 
have been in Kansas so long that I know the best will always happen. 

About two years ago the widow of George L. Stearns, while on her death- 
bed, made up a bundle of her husband's correspondence and sent it to the 
State Historical Society. There are many letters of great historical value, 
and some eight or ten financial statements. Three statements, that I con- 
clude are not duplicates, show an expenditure for Kansas from July 1, 1856, 
to July 1, 1857, of $74,654. One is that of P. T. Jackson in account with 
the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee, another of James Hunne- 
well, treasurer of the Middlesex County Kansas Aid Committee; the third 
statement shows where $48,116.04 of the money came from, as follows: 
Massachusetts, $44,817.39; Maine, $785.37; New Hampshire, $933.99; New 
York city, $845.34; South Carolina, $5; Great Britain, $491; British prov- 
inces, $5, and unknown, $235. 

Prof. William H. Carruth made a valuable statement in the sixth volume 
of the Historical Collections of the operations of the New England Emigrant 
Aid Company, and other schemes to raise money, giving interest to this 
question of funds for Kansas. The letters to Mr. Stearns are from well- 
known Kansans, contributing much light on how things were done then. 
Many thousands of dollars were shipped to firms in St. Louis and Chicago; 
to S. C. Pomeroy, E. B. Whitman, S. N. Simpson, and M. F. Conway; scores 
of items are in these names, but mostly marked for some one else. The 
fund about which Mrs. Stearns has furnished the Historical Society so many 
papers differs from the others in that there seems to have been a special 
agent sent out from Boston to look after it and report conditions. His name 
was Thomas J. Marsh. He arrived in the territory July 12, and returned 
to New England about October 1, 1857. There are ten of his letters written 
during that time. I quote from his letter of July 18: "I think this is an 
important time for the future of Kansas. The people here are earnest, 
though they are apparently quiet and at their business. They need help. 
As an evidence of this earnestness let me say, that in the convention [free- 
state convention at Topeka, July 15 and 16, 1857, to nominate candidates 
under the Topeka constitution], were men who had to ride more than 100 
miles from the extremes to the place of meeting, and this, not by railroad 
conveyance, but on horseback, very many of them, with the thermometer 
ranging all the time from 95 to 110 degrees, and consuming, including the 
two days occupied by the meeting, not less than from a week to ten days' 
time." 

July 21, 1857, Mr. Marsh wrote a lengthy letter in which appears this : 
" The committee have their plans matured, and speakers engaged for the 
coming election, and all their meetings notified ; a good vote will be polled 
in August. I called upon George W. Brown this morning. I believe I have 
now seen all the apparently hostile chiefs. Mr. Brown, I think, is well dis- 
posed. There may be some personal matters not entirely settled, but I trust 
and believe they will all be deferred until all of the elections have been held. 
I told Mr. Brown, as I have told the others, that their differences were 
a source of grief to all their friends East ; no matter who was right or who 
was wrong, they were furnishing aid and comfort to their enemies and 
sorrow to their friends. That friends at home, nor myself, would have only 
one feeling, one wish to express, and that was union of all the friends in 
Kansas, for the freedom of Kansas." 



8 

Who can overestimate the importance, in determining the future of Kan- 
sas, of this interesting piece of New England bossism, through a special 
agent, in rounding up the local bosses, whose petty quarrels threatened to 
destroy all effort? New England was justified in sending a special agent to 
boss the job, since she was putting up the stuff. 

But this is not the only evidence showing that the boss was paramount 
in those days. A Washington letter to the New York Times in December, 
1857, says: "The agent of the administration, who represented them in 
Kansas during the sitting of the [Lecompton] convention, was Henry S. 
Martin, a shrewd and intelligent Mississippian, then and now clerk in the 
interior department under Secretary Thompson. Martin was constantly 
present at the convention caucuses, and it was chiefly through his repre- 
sentation and influence that the convention determined on only a partial 
submission of the constitution to the people. As the agent of the adminis- 
tration his credentials were strengthened by the fact that he was at the 
same time a clerk in the government service, and his influence was para- 
mount. Except for his interference it is fully believed that the Judge El- 
more party, who favored a free submission of the constitution, would have 
triumphed. It was Martin's dispatch to Washington, also, which led the 
president and the [Washington] Union to take their positions so early in 
favor of the convention's action." 

And yet what would all this putting up, bossing and scheming have 
amounted to had not a great majority of the settlers gone to work building 
log cabins on their claims and breaking prairie? 

The campaign which seemed to warrant a special agent from New Eng- 
land to meet the necessity of rounding up the bosses, who were distressing 
friends all over the country, was the first time the two parties met at the 
same ballot-box. From the 29th of November, 1854, until October 5, 1857, 
not quite three years, the people of the territory had twelve elections, eleven 
of them without force. The pro-slavery people obtained control of the terri- 
torial organization by fraudulent votes, they polling 5427 votes March 30, 1855, 
when the census taken in February, 1855, reported only 2905 voters, and so 
the free-state people refused to recognize the pro-slavery authorities, and 
attempted to start another organization. At the second election, 14 March 
30, 1855, there were 781 pro-slavery votes polled at Lawrence and 253 free- 
state, 15 while on October 5, 1857, there were 906 free-state and 11 pro-slav- 
ery. Of the twelve 10 elections, five were held under the Topeka constitution 
and seven under the bogus government. In the last election, October 5, 
1857, Gov. Robert J. Walker had induced the free-state people to participate, 
under the pledge of fair play. It was the purpose of the Grasshopper Falls 
convention 17 to consider this question of the free-state men voting. It was 
unanimously decided for the free-state party that they would make the ef- 
fort to capture the territorial organization. It was in this effort New Eng- 
land was so specially interested. The free-state party won 18 by a vote of 

NOTE 14.- Rept. of Cong. Inves. Com., 1856, pp. 30-33. 

Note 15.— Herald of Freedom, October 10, 1857, gives this at Lawrence, March 30, 1855, as 
1050 pro-slavery and 225 free-state. 

Note 16.— Kan. Hist. Soc. Col., vol. 7, pp. 141, 142. 

Note 17.— Wilder's Annals, 1886, p. 176 ; also, letter of T. J. Marsh to George L. Stearns, d. 
Lawrence, K. T., Sept. 7, 1857. 

Note 18.- Wilder's Annals, 1886, p. 194. 



9 

7888 to 3799, a majority of 4089. They elected a majority in both branches 
of the legislature, the council standing nine free-state and four pro-slavery 
and the house twenty-four free-state and fifteen pro-slavery. But the pro- 
slavery people had the apportionment fixed so that if the Oxford fraud had 
prevailed there would have been a change of three councilmen and eight 
members of the house, which would have given a pro-slavery majority in 
both houses. Governor Walker and Secretary Stanton, however, kept their 
pledges of fair play and threw out the returns of Oxford. There were 1628 
votes 11 ' polled at Oxford for legislative candidates, when only 124, probably 
all legitimate, were cast for township officers. It was generally understood 
at Lecompton that Secretary Stanton refused certificates of election based 
on the Oxford vote with a pistol pointed at his breast. This was the turn- 
ing-point. 

Here is another letter, by Thos. J. Marsh, addressed to George L. Stearns, 
Esq., dated Lawrence, August 7, 1857, and marked private: "I understand 
Mr. E. B. Whitman is going to start for the East on Monday [the 10th], 
and as the proper disposal of the money entrusted to my care in some meas- 
ure depends upon the fact of no other persons knowing anything about the 
amount but myself that from time to time may be sent me, I hope you will 
not deem it wise to communicate to him any information in regard to it ex- 
cept generally. Money is wanted for all purposes. I pay such bills and 
such only as I think you will approve. I have not nor do I intend to en- 
courage any expenditures that do not seem to be absolutely necessary. ' ' 

August 11 he writes an important letter full of advice concerning the 
Grasshopper Falls convention, called for August 26, closing with the follow- 
ing paragraph: "You mention the request of the committee that Judge 
[Martin F.] Conway be constantly employed so long as there is anything to 
be done. The judge is engaged in the military organization, acting in the 
capacity of adjutant-general. If there is no voting done, the organization 
falls. Mr. Redpath is assistant to Conway, and Mr. Whitman is quarter- 
master. I could not promise them money for salaries or other expenses 
unless authorized so to do. Judge Conway told me before the August elec- 
tion that he was going to Osawatomie to speak, if he could get a team. I 
gave him twenty dollars. He started, lost the way, and did not arrive in 
time. He spoke at another place. " 

In a postscript to a letter about the Grasshopper Falls convention, dated 
August 27, 1857, he says: "Governor Robinson has just handed me $200, to 
be used for the free-state cause, forwarded by Amos A. Lawrence, Esq. ' ' In 
another letter, dated September 7, appears this: "I have paid out for vari- 
ous services, $744.80; by far the larger part was for the census, and the 
balance for the August election. My own expenses driving about here and 
my expenses coming here will make about $100 more, besides my board, so 
that I shall not have more than $550 for present use. There is a man here, 
missionary for the Democracy; he is very polite. I am satisfied he is a 
little too leaky for his employers or for his own success." Among the pa- 
pers are Marsh's board bills, $80, and laundry, $10, receipted by Robert 
Morrow. 

Marsh was a Know Nothing politician, of New Hampshire antecedents. 
In 1858 Governor Banks made him superintendent of the Tewksbury alms- 
house. In this job he and his family lost their reputations. A correspondent 

NOTE 19.- Wilder's Annals, 1886, pp. 194. 195. 



10 

of the Historical Society says Marsh was pecuniarily honest and was of good 
repute in 1857. The trouble seems mostly to have been with his boys. He 
was the first Kansas boss, for he seems to have rounded up our "chiefs" in 
good shape at the right time, and yet he was here but ten weeks, and his 
name appears but once in printed Kansas history. 20 

In this collection of letters there are many also from E. B. Whitman to 
George L. Stearns. Politically Whitman's letters are cheerful and instruct- 
ive, but financially quite doleful. October 11, 1857, he writes: "Yesterday 
I was obliged to borrow $350 at five per cent, per month, to meet some 
freight payments. If it does not arrive soon I shall be deeply in trouble 
again. Money is very scarce here, and I do not know but that we shall all 
have to stop payment. Mr. Marsh has returned, leaving us to foot the bills 
for the organization. I cannot learn that he paid any bills at all of this 
description." October 25 Whitman writes that the results of a draft had 
failed to arrive in St. Louis. "Indeed," he says, "I do feel uneasy. Is it 
possible that I am after all to be disappointed? Here I am with an enter- 
prise of magnitude and importance on my hands, with expenses to a large 
amount already incurred, my own personal obligation given for money bor- 
rowed on the strength of the arrival of this. The money was on deposit, as 
I supposed, when I left, and no intimation was given me that there could be 
a delay. Is it possible that the parties making the collection in Boston have 
appropriated it to their own use? Do investigate and write me at once, if 
you have any bowels of compassion. ' ' Whitman borrowed $500 for John 
Brown, giving his personal obligation, and this was troubling him. October 
25 he says: "I am willing to work, wear out, die, if need be, in the cause, 
but I cannot make bricks always without straw. ' ' 

The Historical Society possesses hundreds of such letters, and from them 
and the newspaper clippings some writer will, some day, revise and greatly 
revive and freshen Kansas history. The letters of Whitman and Marsh will 
some day be published, as also a fine collection from many leading states- 
men of that period addressed to Charles Robinson, furnished by Sara T. D. 
Robinson. 

It might be well to look and see if there were any friends in those trying 
times who have not been remembered. In the bitterness coming out of ten 
years of war on the border, we have believed, and taught our children to be- 
lieve, that no good could come out of western Missouri. Time modifies all 
views and controversies, and a little search in the marvelous collection in 
the state-house at Topeka makes the fact stand out that across the line 

Note 20.— -"Thomas J. Marsh, a gentleman of integrity and organizing ability, was selected 
as agent, and he left for Kansas on the 2d day of July, where he remained till after the October 
election. Arriving at Lawrence, he attended a conference of leading men met to consider the 
question of voting at the October election. The situation was not hopeful nor were the men as- 
sembled confident of success. Mr. Marsh stated to them that he had been sent by the friends of 
free Kansas in the East with from $3000 to $4000 to aid in organizing the territory to carry, if 
possible, both branches of the legislature in October. Encouraged by this proffered assistance, 
the conference agreed to press upon the free-state convention, soon to be held, the importance of 
securing, if attainable, the legislature. Mr. Marsh attended the convention, but he found the 
delegates much disheartened. The people were poor, many had been murdered, others had been 
despoiled, a malignant typhoid fever was prevailing, and many were sick and dying. It was cer- 
tain, too, that there would be a large failure of their crops. They felt that political power was 
wholly in the hands of their enemies, whose plans were matured, and who were confident, boast- 
ful, and insolent. ' But for all that,' said Mr. Marsh in a letter to Mr. Wilson, ' it was one of the 
grandest conventions I ever attended. An influence went out from it which was felt in every 
part of the territory. From that time the work went steadily on ; conventions and neighborhood 
meetings were held everywhere until the day of the election. Under the circumstances, no po- 
litical contest in this country will compare with it. I shall never forget how they labored and 
what sacrifices they made. But they triumphed and saved the territory to freedom.' "—Wilson's 
Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, vol. 2, 1876, p. 539. 



11 

there were heroes who stood up for the rights of the people coming to Kan- 
sas, regardless of their views on the slavery question. 

The first expression was in Salt Creek valley, about three miles west of 
Fort Leavenworth, in March, 1854, when it was resolved, 21 "That we will 
afford protection to no abolitionist as a settler of Kansas territory." Next, 
at Weston, a reward 22 of $200 was offered for Eli Thayer. On the 20th of 
July, 1854, 23 a resolution was adopted at a meeting held at Weston, and 
signed by B. F. Stringfellow, and known as the Bayliss resolution, declar- 
ing "That this association will, whenever called upon by any of the citizens 
of Kansas territory, hold itself in readiness to go there to assist in remov- 
ing any and all emigrants who go there under the auspices of the Northern 
emigration aid societies." Did this stand as the sentiment of the people of 
Weston, or was there any to protest? On the 1st of September, 1854, 24 be- 
fore there was any trouble at Lawrence, or elsewhere in the territory, a 
mass meeting of the citizens of Weston was held, and the following expres- 
sion adopted: 

"Whereas, Our rights and privileges, as citizens of Weston, Platte 
county, Missouri, have been disregarded, infringed upon and grievously vio- 
lated within the last few weeks by certain members of the Platte County 
Self- defensive Association; and 

"Whereas, The domestic quiet of our families, the sacred honor of our 
sons and daughters, the safety of our property, the security of our living 
and persons, the 'good name' our fathers left us, the 'good name' of us all 
—and the city of our adoption— are each and all disrespected and vilely as- 
persed and contemptuously threatened with mob violence, wherefore, it 
is imperatively demanded that we, in mass meeting assembled, on this, the 
1st day of September, A. D. 1854, do make prompt, honorable, effective and 
immediate defense of our rights and privileges as citizens of this glorious 
Union: therefore, 

" Resolved (1), That we, whose names are hereunto affixed, are order- 
loving and law-abiding citizens. 

"Resolved (2), That we are Union men. We love the South much, but we 
love the Union better. Our motto is, the Union first, the Union second, and 
the Union forever. 

"Resolved (3), That we disapprove the Bayliss resolution as containing 
nullification, disunion, and disorganizing sentiments. 

"Resolved (4), That we, as consumers, invite and solicit our merchants to 
purchase their goods wherever it is most advantageous to the buyer and the 
consumer. 

' 'Resolved (5) , That we hold every man as entitled to equal respect and 
confidence until his conduct proves him unworthy of the same. 

"Resolved (6), That we understand the 'Douglas bill' as giving all the 
citizens of this confederacy equal rights and equal immunities in the terri- 
tories of Kansas and Nebraska. 

"Resolved (7), That we are believers in the dignity of labor; it does not 
necessarily detract from the moral nor intellectual character of men. 

"Resolved (8), That we are competent to judge who shall be expelled from 
our community, and who shall make laws for our corporation. 

"Resolved (9) , That mere suspicion is not a ground of guilt; mob law 
can only be tolerated when all other law fails, and then only on proof of 
guilt. 

"Resolved (10th and lastly), That certain members of the Platte County 
Self-defensive Association have proclaimed and advocated and attempted 

Note 21.— Webb Scrap-books, vol. 1, p. 43. 
Note 22. -Id., vol. 1, p. 46. 
Note 23.— Id., vol. 1, p. 104. 
Note 24.— Id., vol. 1, p. 114%. 



12 

to force measures upon us contrary to the foregoing principles, which meas- 
ures we do solemnly disavow and disapprove, and utterly disclaim, as being 
diametrically opposed to common and constitutional law, and as having 
greatly disturbed and well-nigh destroyed the order, the peace and the 
harmony of our families and community, and as being but too well calcu- 
lated seriously to injure us in our property and character, both at home and 
abroad. We will thus ever disavow and disclaim." 

This is signed by 174 citizens of Weston, and is a printed broadside in the 
Webb collection of newspaper clippings. The only name that can be iden- 
tified to-day signed to this protest is that of H. Miles Moore, still living at 
Leavenworth. Mention of this protest was made in the New York Tribune 
in October, the letter being dated Fort Leavenworth, September 18, 1854. 

It seems that David R. Atchison was a roaring lion on the border seek- 
ing whom he might devour. He was at the head of a gang of ruffians called 
the Platte City regulators. They destroyed the press of the Parkville 
Luminary April 14, 1855, and drove the proprietor, George S. Park, away 
from home because of some criticism of pro-slavery action in Kansas. In a 
short time Park returned to look after some private business, when the mob 
arose again and demanded that he go. He offered to do anything manly or 
honorable to avoid the shedding of blood. A committee of citizens who had 
the care of Park asked the mob if they were satisfied, and they responded 
"No," that Park had to leave. Fielding Burns, one of the committee, re- 
sponded: "Then let the principle be settled in blood. We ask the honors of 
war. Set your day and we will meet you, but don't sneak down in the 
night. Come openly, and blood will flow as freely as in the Mexican war. 
We fight for principle, for right." W. H. Summers, another member of 
the committee said: "Let them come, and the streets of Parkville will be 
hotter than hell in fifteen minutes ! " A vigorous protest was addressed to 
the world by the citizens of Parkville, in behalf of freedom of action in 
Kansas, signed by a committee of eleven. 25 

The "Annals of Platte County," by W. M. Paxton, says the result of 
this outrage on Park was to bring a myriad of anti-slavery settlers to Kan- 
sas, and of Park it says: "He became a great capitalist, and returned to 
his old home to bless and enrich the very men who had conspired for his 
ruin. He, from the wealth thrust upon him by his enemies, founded Park 
College, the grandest and noblest educational enterprise in the West. His 
dust now reposes at the very spot whence he was banished in life, and a 
colossal marble monument to his honor overlooks the place where his press 
was submerged. How unsearchable are God's judgments, and ' His ways 
are past finding out.' " 

The mayor and councilmen of the city of Weston, May 19, 1855, protested 2e 
against the outrage committed in the streets of their city on William Phil- 
lips, who was taken from Leavenworth and sold by a negro at auction in 
Weston. 

The St. Louis Intelligencer, which was filled from day to day with con- 
stant and bitter attacks on the pro-slavery leaders in Missouri, August 30, 
1855, published a lengthy article on "The Suicide of Slavery, " - 1 from which 
I take a few lines: 

"Any man of sense could have foreseen this result— Alabama and Georgia 

Note 25.— Webb Scrap-books, vol. 6, pp. 207-236. 

Note 26.— St. Louis Evening News, June 4, 1855, in Webb Scrap-books, vol. 4, p. 137. 

Note 27.- Webb Scrap-books, vol. 5. p. 79. 



13 

may hold public meetings and resolve to sustain the slaveholders of Mis- 
souri in making Kansas a slave state. But their resolutions comprise all 
their aid— which is not 'material' enough for the crisis. When slavehold- 
ers of Alabama and Georgia emigrate they go to Louisiana, Arkansas, and 
Texas. They do not come with their slaves to Missouri or to Kansas. Call 
they that backing their friends? 

"The result is that Kansas, the finest land under the sun, is neglected 
and idle; occupied by a few honest and earnest but disheartened pioneers, 
and lorded over by a dozen or two feudal tyrants of Missouri, who curse by 
their presence the land they have desolated. 

"Such is Kansas— poor, neglected, and despised— and western Missouri 
stands infected by the horrible contagion of outlawry, and dwindles away 
under the moral leprosy of its mobocratic leaders! 

"These are the bitter fruits of the repeal of the Missouri compromise— a 
wicked and wrongful deed — that will yet bring a hell of bitter self-reproaching 
to its authoi-s. Missouri did not demand that repeal. The South never asked 
it. Atchison solicited it— and in a moment of political insanity the South 
consented to the wrong, and made the wrong her own. This was the suicide 
of slavery. 

"Atchison and Stringfellow, with their Missouri followers, overwhelmed 
the settlers in Kansas, browbeat and bullied them, and took the government 
from their hands. Missouri votes elected the present body of men who 
insult public intelligence and popular rights by styling themselves 'the leg- 
islature of Kansas. ' This body of men are helping themselves to fat specu- 
lations by locating the 'seat of government' and getting town lots for their 
votes. They are passing laws disfranchising all the citizens of Kansas who 
do not believe negro slavery to be a Christian institution and a national 
blessing. They are proposing to punish with imprisonment the utterance 
of views inconsistent with their own. And they are trying to perpetuate 
their preposterous and infernal tyranny by appointing, for a term of years, 
creatures of their own as commissioners in every county, to lay and collect 
taxes and see that the laws they are passing are faithfully executed. Has 
this age anything to compare with these acts in audacity? 

"It has been the common opinion of thoughtless persons and thick-headed 
bullies of the West that the Northern and Eastern men will not fight. They 
would rather work— plow, build towns, railways, make money, and raise 
families— than fight. But fight they will, if need be. Remember, the sons 
of New England shed the first blood in the American revolution ; and they 
were the last to furl their flags in that terrible struggle. They have never 
disgraced their country by cowardice, and they will not. They are Ameri- 
cans, with spirit, courage, endurance, and deep love of liberty to animate 
them. The free-state men in Kansas will fight before they will be disfran- 
chised and trampled on. Mark the word. 

"Here comes, then, the suicide of slavery. The outrages committed by 
Atchison and his fellows in the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and by 
Stringfellow and his followers in subjugating Kansas to non-resident rule, 
will bring on a collision, first in Congress and then in Kansas— and who shall 
tell the end? 

"Slavery will never sustain itself in a border state by the sword. It may 
conquer in some respects; but it can never 'conquer a peace.' Never! 
never! Once light the fires of internecine war in defense of slavery, and it 
will perish while you defend it. Slaveholders will not stay to meet the fight. 
Property is timid, and the slaves will be sent to Texas to be in 'a safe place ' 
while the fight lasts; and as soon as the slaves are gone, it will be found 
that Missouri has nothing to fight about, and the fight will end 'before it 
begins ! ' 

"Thus the slavery propagandists who repealed the Missouri compromise 
to make Kansas a slave state will make Missouri free, and, in endeavoring 
to expel abolition from Kansas, they will fill both Kansas and Missouri with 
an entire free white population, worth more to the two states than all the 
negroes in America. 

"Is not the Kansas outrage the suicide of slavery?" 

The committee appointed by the Grasshopper Falls convention, August 



14 

26, 1857, 28 fourteen in number, James H. Lane, chairman, says: "We desire 
to be understood that the people of Kansas do not charge the outrages to 
which they have been subjected to the people of Missouri as a body. On the 
contrary, they know that the masses of the people have not joined in these 
outrages, but have remained at home and have denounced the invaders." 

The semicentennial period, which has closed upon Kansas, has been the 
most interesting which has fallen to the lot of any portion of the American 
people. The settlement and development of a state like Kansas, the mighty 
issue involved in its inception, and the world-wide results which came from 
the struggle precipitated from without upon these prairies, gave to the pio- 
neers and later citizens of the state a proud position in the history of the 
world. The first to open the way were moved by faith, not only in the 
moral and political principles which impelled so many thitherward, but to 
invest in agricultural implements and household goods looking to the mate- 
rial outcome of this region, then an unknown quantity. It is said that Buford's 
company of Southern emigrants, in 1856, were an expense to the people of 
Kansas City (Benjamin F. Stringfellow raised $500 for them), whereas, a 
Connecticut party, moving in simultaneously, expended $6000 in St. Louis, 
and $4000 more in Kansas City, for implements and groceries.'-' 1 Hearing 
that Atchison was very busy with his " Lone Star Order ' ' and ' ' Blue Lodges, ' ' 
practicing military drills for an invasion of the territory, thirteen merchants 
of Lawrence made an appeal to the chamber of commerce 30 of St. Louis, 

NOTE 28.— Herald of Freedom, September 12. 1857. 

Note 29.— One of Buford's men wrote from Franklin, Kan., the 6th of July, 1856, to the 
Mobile Tribune (Webb Scrap-books, vol. 15, p. 213), stating that not one-seventh of Buford's 
company remained in the territory. He says : "Most of the others have returned home to hang 
around their mothers' apron-strings, leaving the energetic and persevering Yankees to rule Kan- 
zas. Yes, these men, the 'flower of Southern chivalry,' the men on whom the South relied to 
vindicate her rights, and for whose support liberal subscriptions were made, the men whom the 
Missourians welcomed with outspread arms and open purse, have proved false just at the time 
when they should have stood ready to do or die for Southern rights. Having seen Kanzas, hav- 
ing spent their money in dissipation, when the time for work and enduring hardships came on, 
they struck for home, to disparage the country, to denounce Colonel Buford, and. what is worse, 
to desert and leave unprotected the rights of the South." 

The St. Louis News, about July 24, 1856, tells of the return of Major Buford to Alabama. 
(Webb Scrap-books, vol. 15, p. 111.) It says: "Major Buford passed through this city not long 
ago on his way to Alabama, and it is said he is so disgusted with the Kansas business that he 
will have nothing more to do with it. He tried to get his men to settle on preemption claims, be- 
come steady citizens, so as to secure him for the sums of money he had paid out for them. But 
the men could not be induced to do it. They preferred roaming over the country in organized 
bands, depending on their too hospitable friends in Kansas and Missouri for the means of sup- 
port. These friends are becoming tired of them, and no doubt desire their departure. They 
have done nothing for themselves, nothing for their commander, and nothing for the cause of 
the South in Kansas." 

Page 224, volume 15, Lawrence letter, dated July 23, says: "The funds collected for their 
support have become exhausted." 

Note 30.— The following is the protest in full, published February 23, 1856, and found in 
Webb Scrap-books, volume 9, page 198 ( William Hutchinson wrote the paper : B. W. Wood- 
ward was on the committee ; the third member has passed from memory) : 

"To the Chamber of Commerce at St. Louis: While all the American constitutions regard 
government as based upon the expressed or tacit consent of the governed and the supreme power 
of state as always residing in the people, it is not essential to a pure democracy that its powers 
should be delegated to executive or legislative agents, but exigencies may arise wherein the 
high moral trust may be exercised by the sovereign people in conserving their own rights and 
liberties in the absence of official agents. Such an exigency has now arisen with us, in which the 
supremacy of the popular will must be recognized, for securing our own happiness against for- 
eign abuses — in defending the right and repelling the wrong. 

" You must be already aware that while without an outward, operative government of our 
own, while we were weak in numbers, wealth, and all the requisites for the administration of 
justice, our soil has been repeatedly invaded by armed bands as well as organized armies from 
your state, who, without provocation or the slightest pretext, have murdered our peaceable citi- 
zens, destroyed our ballot-boxes, pillaged our property, blockaded our towns, and threatened 
them with demolition and their inhabitants with death, and that it has only been through the 
most unparalleled forbearance, in some instances, and manly defense of our inherent rights in 
others, that we have escaped a most deadly civil war. Recent reports have come to us that there 
is another extensive organization in your state which is preparing for a future attack upon our 
towns, and that recruiting officers are moving to and fro enrolling men in several counties, who 



15 

January 30, 1856, for peace and protection, stating that the people of Law- 
rence had expended in their city in less than a year over $100,000 for goods, 
and friends in the territory nearly $1,000,000. Paul R. Brooks, of Lawrence, 
and George W. Hutchinson, of Marceline, Mo., are the only ones living who 
signed the paper. Just five days after this appeal, on February 4, 1856, 
Atchison and Stringfellow made speeches" in Platte county, urging an in- 
vasion of the territory, in such reckless and extravagant language as to 
cause one to conclude that in comparison John Brown was of the highest 
order of saneness. And on the 27th of March following, sixty-eight business 
firms in Lawrence called a meeting to consider the breaking open and 
searching of goods in transit on the Missouri river, and an extra tax that 
had been imposed on goods coming up the river, and to remedy the same by 

go through with daily military drill for the same unlawful purpose. We have committed no 
crime, violated the international faith toward no state, but have ever sought to maintain the 
sanctity of the most peaceful relations toward all men. 

" We came to Kansas because we believed it possessed the most inviting climate, luxuriant 
soil and enchanting scenery now open to emigrants upon this continent. We came to build up 
for ourselves and our children beautiful homes, where, as the inheritance of a free government, 
we and they might enjoy a lifetime, having our hearts filled with the pleasure of domestic joy. 
We have been educated in the schools of peace, and nothing would be more abhorrent to our na- 
tures than to see the smoke of battle curling over these prairies, or to feel again the smart of 
those grievous outrages with which some of your people are said to be threatening us. These 
considerations, gentlemen, prompt us to address you in a commercial capacity. 

"We have chosen a residence in Lawrence, from its unrivaled situation upon the only navig- 
able river in the territory — an indispensable requisite in building up a large commercial city. 
We have erected suitable stores for a wholesale and retail trade, and have already secured a very 
flattering business with the interior counti-y- Although it is but little more than twelve months 
since the first store was erected here, yet we have already paid to your state over $100,000, a large 
proportion of which has gone to your city, and the trade of our entire territory with your state 
thus far has been nearly one million dollars. This circumstance alone has already raised the 
prices of many articles of export in your state from 200 to 500 per cent., and your city is extend- 
ing her levees and enlarging her warerooms in anticipation of our future trade. With an area 
four times as large as your whole state, our prospective business must be at least fully equal to 
that of any other state, and our prosperity, in a commercial sense, has quite as much to do with 
the future greatness of your city as any constructive considerations it is possible to deduce from 
your own state. Geographically, St. Louis is the commercial mart of Kansas for years' to come, or, 
until by dint of our own industry and the richness of our soil, manufacturing and commercial 
cities will be built on our own rivers, and even then they will reciprocally add to your enterprise 
and wealth. The chain of all our public interests, therefore, becomes directly linked with yours. 
Our prosperity is yours, our adversity is yours, our invasion is yours, our conquest is yours ; for if, 
by an unnatural and coercive policy on the part of any of your people, we are induced to open new 
thoroughfares for trade with other cities and invest our wealth in opening railroads and tele- 
graphic communication with the same, the weight of your imprudence will recoil only upon your 
own heads, and in due time we shall escape the fiery ordeal unscathed. 

"Although the froward spirit of President Pierce, according to his message, has not yet dis- 
cerned anything in our grievances that ' have occurred under circumstances to justify the in- 
terposition of the federal executive,' we will hope and trust that, so far as the citizens of your 
state are implicated, they have occurred in such a manner as will justify your interposition and 
kindly offices. Like great events casting their shadows forward, the forebodings of the future 
have produced a general paralysis in all departments of business throughout the territory. Our 
trade is not one-third as large as it was three months ago ; mechanics — laborers of all kinds — 
complain alike of the general depression. In the border towns of your state the same want of 
enterprise is observed. Let this continue, and our remittances to your city the coming season 
will be very limited. Emigration is retarded ; consequently no new money is brought into circu- 
lation, and we are cursed, not with war alone, but with 'war, pestilence, and famine.' 

" Our wish is to urge upon you these considerations, and, by virtue of your commercial in- 
fluence throughout the state, ask of you to intercede in our behalf in staying the hand of evil- 
doers, that we may go on developing our greatness and yours, and long enjoy the pleasure of 
those relations we have mutually found thus far so profitable and pleasant. 

G. W. & W. Hutchinson & Co. Ran & Bro. 

HORNSBYS & FERRIL. C. STEARNS. 

L. M. Cox & Co. Otis Wilmarth. 

W. & C. Duncan. Gaius Jenkins. 

Woodward & Finley. L. H. Brown & Co. 

P. Richmond Brooks. Lyman Allen & Co." 
J. J. Fariss. 

Note 31.— December 6 to 9, 1855, about 1500 Missourians besieged Lawrence. They retired 
in consequence of a treaty of peace between Governor Shannon and Charles Robinson and James 
H Lane to which John Brown objected ; the latter wanted to fight. May 21, 1856, Lawrence 
was attacked and much property destroyed. September 15, 1856, an army of 2700 again moved 
on Lawrence, but Governor Geary arrived in time to disperse them. David R. Atchison was in 
the party, and Governor Geary rebuked him, by saying that the last time he saw him he was 
presiding'over the United States senate as acting vice-president. 

December 15, 1855, Atchison published a letter in the Charleston Mercury, in which he wrote: 
" Let your young men come forth to Missouri and Kansas! Let them come well armed, with 



16 

establishing a line of steamboats from Alton, 111., to Leavenworth and Law- 
rence, and thus reach Chicago. :t - 

By the summer of 1857 the end of the contest was so apparently free-soil 
that the spirit of commercialism exhibited by the people of Lawrence reached 
Atchison and Stringfellow, and the towns of Atchison" and Leavenworth 14 
were yielded to free-state control. History tells us that about this time the 
pro-slavery and free-soil men of Atchison agreed tacitly to forego political 
differences and remember only the well-being of the town, and several 
ladies opened small private schools for the accommodation of the growing 
young community. 

In October, 1857, Gen. James H. Lane 15 had an appointment to speak at 
Atchison, and threats of violence were made by some pro-slavery people. 
October 19, 1857, a public meeting was held, and speeches were made by 
sevei-al citizens of various political stripes, Robert McBratney, Dr. J. H. 
Stringfellow, and others, all deprecating what had now become disgraceful. 
At this time the brains of the pro-slavery party had given up the fight, and 
the fortunate possessors thereof fraternized with any one who would come 
in to help build up the town, now striving against other new and flourishing 
places around it. 

In an editorial, March 21, 1857, Harper's Weekly concluded "That we are 
not so great a country as we thought we were. ' ' We are told that Law- 
money enough to support them for twelve months, and determined to see this thing out. One 
hundred true men will be an acquisition. The more the better. I do not see how we are to avoid 
civil war. Come it will. Twelve months will not elapse before war, civil war, of the fiercest 
kind, will be upon us. We are arming and preparing for it. Indeed, we of the border counties 
are prepared. We must have the support of the South, We are fighting the battles of the 
South. Our institutions are at stake." — Webb Scrap-books, vol. 8, p. 139. 

On the date referred to, February 4, 1856, Atchison said : " My object in going was not to 
vote but to settle a difficulty between two of our candidates, and the abolitionists of the North 
said, and published it abroad, that Atchison was there with a bowie-knife and revolver, and by 
God 't was true. I never did go into that territory, I never intend to aro into that territory, with- 
out being prepared for all such kind of cattle. . . . I say, prepare yourselves ; get ready. 
Go over there ; send your young men, and if they attempt to drive you out, then, damn them, 
drive them out. Fifty of you with your shotguns ar* equal to 250 of them with their Sharp's 
rifles. Get ready ; arm yourselves ; for if they abolitionize Kansas, Missouri is no longer a slave 
state, and you lose §100,000.000 of your property." — Webb Scrap-books, vol. 9, p. 216. 

At Lawrence, May 21, 1856, Atchison made this kind of a speech : " Boys, this day I am a 
Kickapoo ranger, by G — d. This day we have entered Lawrence with Southern rights in- 
scribed upon our banner, and not one d d Abolitionist dared to fire a gun. Now, boys, this is 

the happiest day of my life. We have entered that d d town, and taught the d d Aboli- 
tionists a Southern lesson that they will remember until the day they die. And now, boys, we 

will go in again with our highly honorable Jones, and test the strength of that d d Free-state 

hotel, and teach the Emigrant Aid Company that Kansas shall be ours. Boys, ladies should, and 
1 hope will, be respected by every gentleman. But, when a woman takes upon herself the garb 
of a soldier, by carrying a Sharp's rifle, then she is no longer worthy of respect. Trample her 
under your feet as you would a snake. Come on, boys ; now to your duty to yourselves and your 
Southern friends. Your duty I know you will do. If one man or woman dare stand before you, 
blow them to h— 11 with a chunk of cold lead." — Webb Scrap-books, vol. 13, p. 58. [James F. 
Legate always said that he heard this speech.] 

In a speech at St. Joseph, in the early summer of 1855, B. F. Stringfellow said : "I tell you 
to mark every scoundrel among you that is the least tainted with f ree-soilism or abolitionism and 

exterminate him. Neither give nor take quarter from the d d rascals. I propose to mark 

them in this house, and on the present occasion, so you may crush them out. To those who have 
qualms of conscience as to violating laws, state or national, the crisis has arrived when such im- 
positions must be disregarded, as your rights and property are in danger ; and I advise you. one 
and all, to enter every election district in Kansas, in defiance of Reeder and his vile myrmidons, 
and vote at the point of the bowie-knife and revolver. Neither give nor take quarter, as our cause 
demands it. It is enough that the slave-holding interest wills it, from which there is no appeal. 
What right has Governor Reeder to rule Missourians in Kansas? His proclamation and prescribed 
oath must be repudiated. It is your interest to do so. Mind that slavery is established where it 
it not prohibited."— Webb Scrap-books, vol. 3, p. 130. 

Note 32. -Webb Scrap-books, vol. 11, pp. 26. 37, 84. 

Note 33.- Cutler's History of Kansas, 1883, p. 373. 

Note 34. — The election of a free-state mayor, April 13, 1857, in Wilder's Annals, 1886, p. 160. 

Note 35.- Cutler's History of Kansas, 1883, p. 372. 



17 

rence marks the point where successful agriculture will be found to have sub- 
stantially reached the "western inland limit of the United States, " and great 
distress is exhibited for fear of "the effect upon our institutions and our 
government." " Is the escape- valve so soon to be shut down? Is the ref- 
luent wave of population to be turned back thus early on the national heart? " 
These conundrums centered around Lawrence, a point which the same paper, 
June 6, 1857, places among the relics, as follows : " Fifty years hence, when 
the slavery question has come to be viewed as an interesting economical 
problem, like subsoil plows or the merits of guano, the Oread hill, with its 
old fort, will be as curious an object as the ax with which great men's 
heads were cut off in the Tower of London, or the Place de la Bastile, in 
Paris. ' ' There were wise men in the East in those days talking about Kansas. 

There is no doubt but that each crisis in the march of time develops men 
and women capable of meeting it, but it is well for all who enjoy the fruits 
to consider profoundly the wise and heroic service of those who were 
charged with the duty of starting the state of Kansas. Not all of those 
who have gone before will ever receive due credit. I trust I have brought 
a few overlooked to life and light. 

Pride in the past is essential to good citizenship. The territorial pioneers 
of Kansas are entitled to the gratitude of the people for all time to come. 
We should ever have consciousness and thoroughness in our knowledge of 
the state's history. The public schools of Kansas are now by law required 
to teach state history. 

In closing, let me say a word in behalf of the Kansas State Historical 
Society. This Society and its work should be the pride of every citizen of 
the state. The object of the Society "shall be to collect, embody, arrange 
and preserve books, pamphlets, maps, charts, manuscripts, papers, paint- 
ings, statuary, and other materials illustrative of the history of Kansas in 
particular, and of the country generally ; to procure from the early pioneers 
narratives of the events relative to the early settlement of Kansas, and of 
the early explorations, the Indian occupancy, overland travel, and immigra- 
tion to the territory and the West ; to gather all information calculated to 
exhibit faithfully the antiquities and the past and present resources and 
progress of the state, and to take steps to promote the study of history by 
lectures and other available means." 

It will be observed that one need not necessarily be an old man or an old 
woman to do this ; on the contrary, it is to be regretted that a proper ap- 
preciation of such work seldom comes to men and women at a time in their 
lives when such a task would be easier of complete accomplishment. "The 
struggles of empires and the convulsions of nations," says a writer, "while 
they have much of sublimity, have also much of uncertainty and indistinct- 
ness." Important and instructive as is the narration of past events and the 
influence they have exerted on the world in civilization and refinement, his- 
tory is seldom so interesting as when, descending from the loftier and more 
splendid regions of general narration, it dwells for a while in a humbler 
place, and delights in the details of events of every-day life and of the his- 
tory of the people. 

At the end of the year, June 30, 1904, the Historical Society has 10 life 
members, and 146 members who pay an annual fee of one dollar each. Be- 
sides these, all newspaper editors and publishers are members by virtue of 
the contribution of their publications. The collections of the Society have 



18 

an intrinsic value beyond estimate, but, based on figures used by a correspond- 
ing institution, $200,000 would not replace it. Last summer I attended a 
meeting of the various historical associations in the Louisiana purchase. 
One man spoke and said: "My father was a life member of the Missouri 
Historical Society; I am a life member; and my son [pointing to a sixteen- 
year-old lad] is also a life member." Surely, if there is that much pride in 
Missouri, there ought to be as much, if not more, among Kansas people in 
a Kansas society of like nature. 

To appear on the program of the semicentennial observance of such an 
event is an extraordinary privilege. I know of no way to compensate for 
the honor you have done me in your invitation but to pledge renewed zeal 
in caring for the records of this people committed to the society which I 
represent. 



iSSSL ° F EGRESS 




016 088 977 9 



' ;::•;• ■' 



